Influnce of Human Nature and Politics in a City

1631 Words4 Pages

In Plato’s republic, a philosophical account on the kallipolis (the beautiful city) is built on the perspective of Socrates and his discussion between his companions. In the republic, the city in which ones live in depends on the soul and the character of the city one lives in. In this paper the character of human nature and politics will be discussed in how a city is ought to be by the influence of human nature and politics. Firstly, the influence of human nature on politics will be looked at, for example according to Plato on behalf of Socrates; he claims that a just soul creates a just society, where it is human nature to be just, that influences in creating a just political system. Secondly, politics influences human nature, where in the republic when the discussion of guardians starts out between Socrates and the companions, there is political thought discussed between them, where Socrates wants to create the perfect guardians through specific training in all types of skills instituted to creating a perfect protector. Lastly, human nature is human soul if the soul is just the city is going to be just. It is the human nature which has created communities without any political thought put in place; it political thought that forms rules and laws. Thus, human nature is part of the individual understanding of its society that creates an understanding of how one ought to be, which in turns creates rules and laws that is essentially viewed as politics.
According to Plato, Socrates means that human nature shapes out politics. Where in Book 2, Socrates and the companions discuss how one behaves depends on his human nature, for example, Socrates discusses about how it is human nature to keep one’s body healthy. (Plato, 1992, p. 33). H...

... middle of paper ...

...ublic is the guardians the highest class. Politics influence on human nature constrains its natural upbringing for an individual. As discussed in the republic, the guardians needed to be educated and trained in a manner that fit the good of the society and anything bad was excluded. The main function of this was to raise loyal guardians that will think best for the city. Therefore, it is human nature that brings politics together, where through human nature a community is made and through that community different ideologies emerge. If there was no community, Socrates himself would have not talked about this issue creating a best city. For this reason, it is not only the human soul that creates the city but also the community’s ideologies create it.

Works Cited

Plato. (1992). Plato Republic. (G. Grube, & C. Reeve, Eds.) Indiana: Hackett Publishing Company Inc.

Show More
Related

  • Aristotle's Argument of the Polis

    1743 Words  | 4 Pages

    ... against him. With regard to the second objection, Aristotle can begin by accepting that whereas it is indeed true that the parts prior to the whole or the polis - the single associations, respectively - do not contain the virtue for the achievement of eudaimonia in themselves alone, it is through the conjunction of them all that the capacity for this virtue emerges. Indeed, the parts of the city-state are not to be taken distinctively. For instance, whereas five separate individuals alone may not have the capacity to each lift a 900 lbs piano, the five together, nonetheless, can be said to be able to accomplish this. Similarly, it is the city-state with all of its parts that can achieve the good life. In any case, it remains that humankind is essentially political since it fulfills the function of reason, and this function is best performed under the city-state.

    Read More

  • Justice and Moderation of the Soul in The Republic, by Plato

    3023 Words  | 7 Pages

    In his philosophical text, The Republic, Plato argues that justice can only be realized by the moderation of the soul, which he claims reflects as the moderation of the city. He engages in a debate, via the persona of Socrates, with Ademantus and Gaucon on the benefit, or lack thereof, for the man who leads a just life. I shall argue that this analogy reflecting the governing of forces in the soul and in city serves as a sufficient device in proving that justice is beneficial to those who believe in, and practice it. I shall further argue that Plato establishes that the metaphorical bridge between the city and soul analogy and reality is the leader, and that in the city governed by justice the philosopher is king.

    Read More

  • Formation of Real Truth: Plato's Allegory of the Cave and Shakespeare's Othello

    1063 Words  | 3 Pages

    Plato. “Republic VII.” Trans. G.M.A. Grube. Readings in Ancient Greek Philosophy From Thales to Aristotle. Comp. and ed. S. Marc cohen, Patricia Curd, and C.D. C. Reeve. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1995. 370-374

    Read More

  • Kallipolis As A Just City

    1564 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the book Republic by Plato, Socrates argues with his colleagues that there is a just city, Kallipolis, and there is a certain way that this just city can be obtained. It involves a semi-communistic form of rule that is guided by a philosopher king and a three-part hierarchy. The hierarchy represents all the people in the city, and is set up in a pyramidal shape to represent the ratios that the three classes make up. The top group, and by far the smallest, is composed of the rulers. The middle group, and still fairly small group, comprises of the warriors. The common people (proles) make up the increasingly dominant bottom portion of the pyramid. The placement of the people in the pyramid also represents the importance of the citizens within each class; with the people on the top (rulers) being most important and the common people of the bottom being the least important. Contrasting to Socrates’ ideas, in The City and Man, Leo Strauss argues that the just city is impossible for two main reasons. Throughout this paper, I will argue for Strauss’ view on the impossibility of the just city. However, I believe that there are other points, besides Strauss’, on why the just city is infeasible. I will then argue through Plato’s text how Socrates’ idea of Kallipolis is unreasonable and defies the ideas of realism.

    Read More

  • Democracy Outlined by Plato and Aristotle

    920 Words  | 2 Pages

    Plato defines Athens as a democratic society that “treats all men as equal, whether they are equal or not.” Therefore, believes that there are those that are born to rule and others that are born to be ruled. Plato presents the argument that democracy does not achieve the greatest good, giving four main objections to democracy. Firstly, he identifies that most of us are ruled by passions, pleasure, sentiment and impulse. Hence, th...

    Read More

  • Plato Republic Democracy

    1270 Words  | 3 Pages

    Socrates evaluates four city constitutions that evolve from aristocracy: timocracy, oligarchy, democracy and tyranny. As a result that these four types of cities exist, four additional types of individuals who inhabit them also exist. Although these city constitutions evolve from aristocracy, Socrates deems aristocracy to be the most efficient, therefore the most just, of the constitutions because the individuals within it are ruled by the rational part of the soul.

    Read More

  • The Unjust Speech Analysis

    1720 Words  | 4 Pages

    According to the Homeric traditions the philosophical definition of politics was the identification, maintenance, and transformation of community core values from the old to the young generation. Over time civilizations have developed a political system in order to achieve organization, equality, justice, and stability within a community. A political community helps manage laws, distributes power, and plays a crucial role in the development of a virtuous life in citizenry; which is imperative in the term of it’s existence. Contrary to politics, philosophy teaches us to become rationalized beings and to think for ourselves rather than imitating or listening to other people. It also allows us to reason and use logic to make sense of things for

    Read More

  • Justice and Good in The Republic by Plato.

    1073 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the beginning, his two listeners ask the question of whether justice is stronger than injustice, the consequences of the two, and what makes the first right and the second wrong. As a response, Socrates deals directly with the concept of the individual's inner goodness and decency, but also ties it to his idea of the perfect state, which is a republic of three classes of people with a developed social structure and little in the way of recreation.

    Read More

  • Plato’s Republic: Proto-traditional Feminism and Modern Feminism

    1604 Words  | 4 Pages

    Brown, Eric. "Plato's Ethics and Politics in The Republic." Stanford University. Stanford University, 01 Apr. 2003. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.

    Read More

  • The Doctrine of Recollection

    1000 Words  | 2 Pages

    Plato, and G. M. A. Grube. Five Dialogues. 2nd ed. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Pub., 2002. Print.

    Read More

  • Political Philosophy

    1755 Words  | 4 Pages

    Aristotle’s emphasis is on the city-state, or the political world as a natural occurrence. He says “every city-state exists by nature, since the first communities do.” (Aristotle 3). Aristotle continually reiterates the notion that the creation of a community comes from necessity; individuals aim at the highest good of all, happiness, through their own rationality, and the only way to achieve happiness is through the creation of the city-state. Aristotle follows the creation of a household and a village to the creation of the city-state in which citizens are able to come together to aim at the “good which has the most authority of all,” (Aristotle 1) happiness. In turn, this necessity for the formation of a city state comes from the idea of man as a rational being. “It is also clear why a human being is more of a political animal than a bee or any other gregarious animal… no animal has speech except for a human being.” (Aristotle 4). For Aristotle, human beings are political animals because of their ability to speak, their ability to communicate pleasures and desires, and their ability to reason. Aristotle’s state com...

    Read More

  • The Apology of Socrates: Guilty or Innocent?

    943 Words  | 2 Pages

    "Plato." The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, Volume I. 6th ed. NY: W.W. Norton and Co., 1992. 726-746.

    Read More

  • Plato Republic Essay

    905 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the Plato’s Republic mainly discuses the idea of what justice is. The answer to this question has a variety of answers according to the Republic, which makes it very interesting. Throughout this book, you will be driven in many directions of what justice is. Some may the answer is to primarily is doing the right thing. The main issue comes from about is whether to try and be just at the expense of staying poor, or lie, or even use the very unjust means to get what one wants in life. The main point of the book is a man who tries to be very just, may spend life wandering in the streets in search for money, while the man who lies to get their way, will be rich. This essay looks at the Thrasymachus’s concept of and the Socrates’s concept of justice. The essay also looks at the author thinks that the unjust man will be happier that the just man. It explores the reasons why the concepts are right or wrong.

    Read More

  • Agamemnon as a Tyrant as Described by Plato's "The Republic"

    1274 Words  | 3 Pages

    One of Plato's goals in The Republic, as he defines the Just City, is to illustrate what kind of leader and government could bring about the downfall of his ideal society. To prevent pride and greed in leaders would ensure that they would not compromise the well being of the city to obtain monetary gains or to obtain more power. If this state of affairs becomes firmly rooted in the society, the fall to Tyranny begins. This is the most dangerous state that the City become on i...

    Read More

  • Analysis of Plato's The Republic

    2022 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Republic is an examination of the "Good Life"; the harmony reached by applying pure reason and justice. The ideas and arguments of Plato center on the social settings of an ideal republic - those that lead each person to the most perfect possible life for him. Socrates was  Plato's early mentor in real life.  As a tribute to his teacher, Plato uses Socrates in several of his works and dialogues.  Socrates moderates the discussion throughout, as Plato's mouthpiece. Through Socrates' powerful and brilliant questions and explanations on a series of topics, the reader comes to understand what Plato's model society would look like. The basic plan of the Republic is to draw an analogy between the operation of society as a whole and the life of any individual human being.  In this paper I will present Plato’s argument that the soul is divides into three parts.  I will examine what these parts are, and I will also explain his arguments behind this conclusion.  Finally, I will describe how Plato relates the three parts of the soul to a city the different social classes within that city.

    Read More

More about Influnce of Human Nature and Politics in a City

Open Document